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Exempt or Salaried Employees

Exempt employees Most roles done by Reliant missionaries are ministry in orientation, and not directly guided by Fair Labor and Standards Act.   Such roles are paid in a manner keeping with  FLSA exempt employees, who are generally paid a predetermined salary for a set period of time regardless of the number of hours worked. Administrative, professional, managerial, and executive employees, as defined by the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, are exempt from the requirements of that Act and are therefore generally not entitled to overtime pay.  This is the manner that most ministerial roles performed by Reliant missionaries are paid. 

Non-Exempt or Hourly Employees

Reliant applies hourly wages and time-card use for missionaries working less than 20 hours per week. 

In addition, some Reliant employees perform role which do not qualifying qualify as "exempt" under the criteria discussed above are considered non-exempt and subject to the requirements of the federal Fair Labor Standards Act. Non-exempt employees are normally paid at the hourly overtime pay rate for any time worked over 40 hours in a work week, in accordance with applicable federal and state wage and hour laws. Time off for any reason, including holidays, sick leave, vacations, and other forms of leave will not be considered hours worked for overtime eligibility.For non-exempt employees, time worked over 40 hours in a work week is never at the employee's discretion. Overtime shall only be incurred and paid if it has been requested or approved in advance by Reliant through the employee's supervisor and must be reported on the employee's time card

Associate Staff

Associate staff are volunteers and not employees or independent contractors of Reliant. Associate staff are volunteers who have been approved to conduct ministry on behalf of Reliant and to incur bona fide ministry expenses, reimbursable according to Reliant's accountable reimbursement plan. Non-employed spouses of Reliant employees may be considered Associate staff if they perform legitimate volunteer ministry within the scope of Reliant's ministry purposes and have gone through the application process. Since volunteers do not receive any form of compensation, their service to the ministry will generally be recognized through non-compensatory means such as recognition and praise.

Initial and Released Employees (MTD)

Initial Status

Reliant employees that are deputized fundraisers on behalf of Reliant begin their employment with the status "initial" for purposes of MTD (Ministry Team Development - see Chapter 6). The job description for staff in the initial phase requires all paid hours to be dedicated to MTD. Employees in the initial phase will not be paid for ministry responsibilities. The employee may participate in functions for their own encouragement and refreshment on their own time.

It is Reliant's expectation that an employee in the initial phase is not responsible for any ministry duties and will not be allowed to participate in any mission trips during the first 6 months of initial MTD. Employees in the initial phase may request an exception to participate in a mission trip after the first 6 months. Exceptions will be granted on a case by case basis and will be based on MTD performance.

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Sustaining Status

Once an employee has reached their required MTD Goal (see section 6.2.g), he or she is "Released to Assignment". A new job description should be submitted to Missionary Resources. In this status, an employee begins to be paid for ministry hours worked. It is Reliant's expectation that employees continue to maintain a healthy balance in the account for which they are responsible. If (Typically 5 - 10% of a missionaries job will be devoted to Sustaining MTD.)  If this level drops to an unhealthy level for an extended period of time, the employee may be returned to "Initial MTD" status (see section 6.2.n).

Associate Staff

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Active Status 

In very exceptional cases an MTD Coach, along with Missionary Resources leadership and the ministry supervisor may allow a missionary to be active in ministry while still developing their Initial Ministry Team.  This generally happens no sooner than one year after beginning MTD.   It needs to be evident to ministry leadership that the missionary's support levels will be helped by active involvement.  There is always an end-date and return to full-time MTD until the missionary reaches 100% of their MTD goal.